McKinsey Operations

Amid deepening geopolitical fragmentation, the United States imports $3 trillion in manufactured goods annually. About 25 percent of these are particular "Achilles' heels" – due to some combination of criticality to national security, supply concentration, and geopolitical distance from trade partners. New McKinsey Global Institute research introduces a "ramp-up factor" to quantify what it would take for the United States to produce more at home, revealing a complex picture where simply running existing factories at peak capacity would hardly touch the biggest exposures. Swipe to see the research's key findings. Read the full report here: https://mck.co/4tOEsqQ

We just wrapped our largest R&D Leaders Forum yet, and the energy in the room told the whole story. 65 senior leaders. Two days at Half Moon Bay. One clear signal: leaders are moving from AI experimentation to real transformation in R&D. Leaders are no longer asking whether AI will reshape R&D. They’re asking how to make it real: where to start, what to build, how to scale, and how to bring the whole organization along. 100% of post-event survey respondents said they’d come back next year. Five themes kept coming up across panels, breakouts, and side conversations: ▪️Defining the North Star: what does AI-native R&D actually look like for your function? ▪️Scaling beyond the mandate: turning isolated pilots into organization-wide impact ▪️Redesigning the operating model: roles, governance, and decision rights, not just tools ▪️Getting data right: semantic models and source-of-truth platforms as the real unlock ▪️Rethinking talent: less “Will AI replace us?” and more “What will engineers and scientists do differently in three years?” Thank you to every speaker, panelist, and attendee who made this a genuine exchange among peers. See you next year. #RDLeadersForum #AIinRD #ProductDevelopment #Innovation #McKinseyOperations

Biomanufacturing is being rewired — and the performance impact is real. Breakthrough yield improvements. Faster cycle times. Right-first-time quality. Significant cost efficiencies. These are no longer visionary aspirations — they are outcomes organizations are pursuing today by embedding digital and AI capabilities into the way manufacturing operates. Yet transformation at scale is rarely straightforward, and many companies are struggling to translate these investments into tangible bottom-line impact. Join Vivek Arora and Pierre-Olivier Estève at the Pharma Manufacturing World Summit in Boston as we unpack what it takes to create sustainable value from rewired manufacturing — from shop floor operations to enterprise data platforms, and every workflow in between. Looking forward to the discussion with industry leaders shaping the future of pharma manufacturing. #PMWS26

Catalyst San Francisco kicked off last week with a clear message from Senior Partner Naveen Sastry. A clear takeaway from the discussion is that procurement is moving toward more AI-enabled, agentic ways of working, shifting from insight generation to real-time decision support and execution. A few themes stood out: ▪️The focus is moving from analysis to action, with decisions happening closer to real time ▪️Trade-offs are becoming more explicit as organizations navigate cost, resilience, and speed ▪️Progress at scale depends less on tools alone and more on how well data, processes, and governance come together The real question now is how quickly these models translate from concept into everyday decisions.

Procurement leaders are being asked to do more than ever: protect supply in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, manage inflation and cost pressure, address talent constraints, while consistently delivering productivity and savings. If you're at ProcureCon Australia next week, join McKinsey partner Tarandeep Singh Ahuja for his innovation spotlight session and explore how leading organizations are using agentic AI to accelerate execution, boost resilience, and absorb disruptions. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4decKiB #procurement #agenticAI #ProcureCon

Watch our 30-minute on-demand executive “Voices on” insights session to learn how leading organizations are uncovering hidden opportunities and strengthening resilience across their production spend. https://lnkd.in/d-TgCWSN Voices on Procurement Analytics: Uncovering hidden opportunities and increasing resilience in production spend In this session, we bring together industry perspectives and show how advanced analytics and GenAI-enabled insights are helping large manufacturing organizations gain transparency across complex spend landscapes. We explore how organizations are building “X-ray” capabilities to surface hidden cost drivers, anticipate supplier risks, and strengthen resilience in an increasingly volatile environment. In “Voices on” we dig deeper into specific aspects and challenges in the world of operations. We will look at how operational excellence combined with tech and AI, can unlock the next level of value. #McKinsey #Spendscape #VoicesOn #SpendscapeAI #AIinProcurement #SpendAnalytics #ProcurementIntelligence #ProductionSpend

We are proud to once again have been recognized as a Top Tech and Value Leader in Spend and Procurement Analytics by The Hackett Group. The recognition reflects our strengths in helping clients bring together fragmented spend data into a unified platform, powered by AI, moving them to a new dimension of spend and procurement analytics, that delivers: ✔ Actionable insights that translate into measurable value ✔ Scalable analytics to support enterprise-wide transformation ✔ Procurement intelligence that enables intuitive, natural language interaction with data Spendscape integrates data, analytics, and generative AI to deliver scalable, decision-ready insights, aligned with our innovation agenda and our ambition to redefine spend analytics and procurement intelligence. Learn more about our solutions and request a demo to see Spendscape in action: https://lnkd.in/eV_Dd8_t #Spendscape #McKinsey #ProcurementIntelligence #ProcurementAnalytics #SpendAnalytics #DigitalProcurement #SolutionMap #SpendMatters #HackettGroup

Digital transformation has no borders. CITIC Dicastal's Morocco site recently became Africa’s first member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, demonstrating how advanced manufacturing, AI, and sustainability can come together to drive industrial transformation. In this conversation with McKinsey’s partner Forest Hou, CITIC Dicastal president Badr Lahmoudi shares how the company is using digital technologies to improve efficiency, accelerate product development, and reduce emissions, while building local talent with more than 95% of the workforce hired locally. The broader message is powerful: manufacturing leadership can emerge anywhere when technology, talent, and operational excellence come together. Learn more here: https://mck.co/4tx9SlI The Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative. The initiative was cofounded with McKinsey & Company and is counseled by an advisory board of industry leaders who are working together to shape the future of global manufacturing. The advisory board includes Foxconn Industrial Internet, Koç Holding, McKinsey & Company, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Aramco. Sites and value chains that join the network are designated by an independent panel of experts.

We often talk about “navigating uncertainty.” What’s different in Europe right now is the duration of that uncertainty—and what it demands from leaders. In this discussion, one idea stayed with me: pressure, when it persists, stops being a shock and becomes a design constraint. The companies making progress are treating it that way. They’re simplifying how decisions get made. Sharpening where capital goes. And asking harder questions about what their operating model needs to look like going forward—not just what it looked like before. In the latest episode of McKinsey Talks Operations, host Christian Johnson speaks with Jan Mischke and Ruth Heuss about how organizations are moving from short-term resilience to longer-term rewiring. Read the transcript: https://mck.co/3P9hTz6

We’ve launched our new Spendscape AI website, outlining our approach on AI in procurement: https://lnkd.in/dJecDp7S AI in procurement is helping organizations enhance how they analyze spend data and support decision making. With Spendscape AI, generative AI is applied to complement existing analytics by enabling more intuitive access to insights and highlighting patterns across procurement data. Instead of relying solely on reports, teams can interact with their data through natural language, helping to better understand cost drivers, identify potential risks, and explore opportunities. This includes: ✓ Easier exploration of procurement data through natural language ✓ Improved visibility across categories and suppliers ✓ Support in identifying trends, risks, and potential inefficiencies #McKinsey #Spendscape #SpendscapeAI #AIinProcurement #GenAI #AgenticAI #ConversationalAI #AIAgents #SpendAnalytics #ProcurementIntelligence #ProcureTech